page_title: Lochwinnoch
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lochwinnoch / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Family memorial stones of the MacDowalls of Garthland and the Castle Semple estate, Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Scotland
context_page_description: Lochwinnoch is a village in the council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Lying on the banks of Castle Semple Loch and the River Calder, Lochwinnoch is chiefly a residential dormitory village serving nearby urban centres such as Glasgow and Paisley. Its population in 2001 was 2628.
  The Town also lends its name to a civil parish of some 50 sq mi of the surrounding countryside, including the nearby village of Howwood. The parish borders seven others: Beith, Kilbarchan, Kilbirnie, Kilmacolm, Largs, Neilston and Paisley.
context_section_description: Lochwinnoch is first recorded in the 12th Century as a parish under the higher control of Paisley and Renfrew, but the area has been inhabited since the neolithic period.
  The early 18th-century St John's Church, also known as 'Auld Simon' (whose front gable still stands at the eastern end of the High Street), was probably built on the site of a pre-Reformation church dating to the Medieval period. It is dedicated to St. John, hence the name of Johnshill, more properly St. John's Hill, and St. John's well, located in the garden adjacent to the Church Yard.
  Janet Pollock and James Tannahill, the parents of Robert Tannahill, were married here on 29 August 1763. Auld Simon's early 19th-century replacement, the Church of Scotland-administered Parish Church, complements the formal open space of Harvey Square, on Church Street.
  Built not far from the village of Lochwinnoch, Barr Castle is a 15th-century keep which was altered in the 16th century (and probably later, too). The gables of the castle have collapsed, apart from the chimney stack which juts up into the sky. Not much survives of the former courtyard of the castle. The main hall was on the first floor, reached by a turnpike stair, which continued to the rooms on the upper floors. It is clearly visible from the A760 road going south from the village to Kilbirnie. It was built by the Glen family but passed in the late 16th century to the Hamiltons of Ferguslie. A door lintel has a date of 1680 and the initials L.H./I.C. The family abandoned it in the 18th century in favour of a new house.
  The family, variously known as Sempill, Sempil, Sempel and Semple, had probably owned estates in the area from as early as the 13th century. Robert Semple, Steward of the barony of Renfrew during the reign of Alexander II, was recorded as living in Elliston Castle, whose ruins lie near Howwood. The Semples of Elliston fought for Robert the Bruce, and steadily grew in power to become the Steward's hereditary Baillies of Renfrewshire. They were appointed Hereditary Sheriffs of Renfrewshire and Hereditary Baillies of Paisley. They were later designated as Lords Semple. Their extensive land holdings, Castle Semple, constituted some areas of Lochwinnoch and its hinterland. At some point, probably in the 15th century, the family built a tower keep at the east end of the north shore of the Loch.
  In 1504 John, the first Lord Semple, built the Lochwinnoch Collegiate Church, which became one of Scotland's finest church schools. Its ruins can be found in Parkhill woods on the edge of the village. John was killed at the Battle of Flodden.
  In 1727 the Semples sold the estate to the MacDowalls of Garthland. William MacDowall was one of Glasgow's leading West Indies merchants who owned sugar plantations in the Caribbean. In addition to buying the Shawfield Mansion in Glasgow as his town-house he instructed the rebuilding and expansion of Castle Semple in the grand Palladian style in 1735.
  The central part of Castle Semple mansion house burned down in 1924. Castle Semple House remains only as ruined buildings, such as the west gate, the garden wall, and a hexagonal building known as The Temple, which was built in 1770 on a hill overlooking the Loch.
  In 1795, nine mills were built in Lochwinnoch, for linen cloth, thread, cotton, wool, etc. The ruins of an old corn mill are located in Millbank Glen near the Route 7 cyclepath at Meikle Millbank. The village was developed from 1788 by the Macdowalls mainly to accommodate the work force. As such, notwithstanding the older Johnshill settlement, the village in its modern form was a planned community, rather than one evolving over time. This planned village lies between the original settlement at East End and the River Calder. Three grand vistas along straight streets are closed by two churches and the estate gates.
  Furniture manufacturers, originally from Beith,  became established in the village in the 19th century. From the 1860s  mechanised furniture manufacturing in Scotland was led by factories in the Lochwinnoch and Beith districts, and became dominated
caption: Memorial to the MacDowalls of Garthland, latter day owners of the Castle Semple estate.
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